As a wholesaler or B2B business, you know price management is complex. Each customer has different agreements: volume discounts, customer-specific prices, minimum order quantities. Until recently, this was a headache on e-commerce platforms. With Shopify Catalogs that's changing fundamentally.
In this article we dive deep into the possibilities of Shopify's B2B functionality. From setting up company profiles to configuring advanced volume discounts — everything you need to know to bring your wholesale to Shopify Plus.
Catalogs are the backbone of Shopify's B2B solution. A catalog is essentially a personalised product list with prices that you assign to specific B2B customers. Think of it as a digital price list that automatically shows the right prices the moment your customer logs in.
The strength is in the flexibility:
Before you start with catalogs, you have to understand how Shopify organises B2B customers. It revolves around three levels:
| Level | Function | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Company | The organisation as a whole | Bakery De Groot Ltd. |
| Location | Branches or departments | Amsterdam branch, Rotterdam branch |
| Contact | Individual employees | Jan (purchasing), Petra (admin) |
Catalogs are linked to Locations, not to the entire Company. That means different branches of the same customer can have different price agreements — perfect for organisations with multiple purchasing departments.
When creating a catalog, you choose between two pricing approaches:
You set one discount percentage that applies to all products in the catalog. Ideal for:
You determine a specific B2B price for each product. Suitable for:
Note: you cannot combine these two methods within a single catalog. If you choose fixed prices, you have to set a price for every product.
One of the most powerful features for wholesalers is volume pricing. You define price tiers that activate automatically when customers order larger quantities.
An example for a product with a base price of €10.00:
| Quantity | Price per unit | Discount |
|---|---|---|
| 1-9 | €10.00 | - |
| 10-49 | €9.00 | 10% |
| 50-99 | €8.00 | 20% |
| 100+ | €7.00 | 30% |
The customer sees these tiers directly on the product page and in the cart. Transparency that builds trust and encourages larger orders.
Beyond price tiers, you can also set order rules per product within a catalog:
These rules work together with volume pricing. If you set a minimum of 10, the customer automatically starts in the first volume discount tier.
A great strength of Shopify Plus is the ability to combine B2B and direct-to-consumer (DTC) in a single store. This works as follows:
This eliminates the need for a separate B2B store. One platform, two business models.
With thousands of products and dozens of customer groups, manual management becomes unworkable. That's why Shopify supports CSV import and export for catalogs:
The CSV structure follows a fixed format with columns for product handle, variant ID, price and volume tiers.
Imagine you're a wholesaler in office supplies with three types of customers:
| Segment | Catalog type | Configuration |
|---|---|---|
| Resellers | Overall Adjustment | 40% off everything, minimum 50 units per product |
| Large enterprises | Fixed Prices + Volume | Negotiated prices per product group, tiers from 100 units |
| Small business customers | Overall Adjustment | 15% off, no minimum, increment of 6 |
Each customer logs in and sees the prices relevant to them directly. No manual quotes, no confusion.
For advanced scenarios you can use Shopify Flow:
Shopify's B2B functionality is ideal if you:
Currently working with an outdated B2B system or ERP integration for price management? When migrating to Shopify Plus, your existing price agreements, customer segments and volume tiers can come along. Syncer.nl has extensive experience migrating complex B2B catalogs from platforms like Magento, WooCommerce and legacy ERP systems.
Curious what this means for your situation? Request a free migration scan and discover the possibilities.
